The federal member for Ballarat Catherine King has said thousands of workers in the area could face unemployment if Prime Minister Scott Morrison does not renew the JobKeeper scheme.
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The funding, which was designed to allow businesses to keep employees on their books during the economic downturn prompted by COVID-19, is due to finish at the end of September.
Ms King said up to 18,182 workers could be forced out of work and that 4,782 businesses were at risk in the Ballarat electorate.
Ms King said the changing situation in Victoria, with metropolitan Melbourne returning to lockdown last Wednesday, meant companies and employees in the region were even more likely to be badly hit.
"Cancelling JobKeeper too early would have a devastating impact on local businesses and households," she said in a media release.
The Ballarat region had one of the highest total applications to the JobKeeper scheme in the entire state.
Data released by the Treasury for April - when most companies lodged their applications for the funding - showed there were 2,099 organisations in Central Ballarat that sought to be part of the scheme, the ninth most for any state postcode.
Those applications related specifically to the 3350 postcode, but there were many hundreds more for postcode areas outside of the CBD.
There were 302 registered for the 3356 postcode, which covers Delacombe and Sebastopol. The 3355 postcode, which stretches from Lake Gardens through Wendouree to Mitchell Park had 336 applications, while the Buninyong area under the postcode 3357 registered 96.
The total number of applications in central Ballarat was significantly higher than the 3550 postcode in central Bendigo (1,320) and the Geelong CBD postcode of 3220, where there 1,429 applications registered.
Other city leaders have also called for the scheme to be kept on after September.
The City of Ballarat, Committee for Ballarat, Commerce Ballarat and Ballarat Regional Tourism wrote a joint letter last month urging the Prime Minister and treasurer Josh Frydenberg to reevaluate the scheme and allow some businesses continued access beyond the current deadline.
At the moment, the scheme provides a wage subsidy of $1,500 per fortnight.
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According to an online postcode search tool released by the Labor Party, the jobs of almost 8,000 local workers were at risk in the 3350 postcode, with economic losses of up to $11,964,300 each fortnight.
There is no current data on the exact level of successful applications to the JobKeeper scheme.
The federal government is due to announce its plans for both the JobKeeper and JobSeeker schemes on July 23.
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